Once again we are taking part in the International Clean Up day being held this year at Sand Hollow state park near Hurricane, Utah.
Date: Saturday, September 25
Time: 11:00 - 5:30
Prizes, BBQ and Treasure Hunt are among the activities planned.
We will not be doing this solo. A couple other stores from around the state are planning and attending. This is not about stores but about keeping Utah dive sites clean.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Just in, Park Is It
I always enjoy the what ever it takes attitude of divers.
A couple months ago we ventured to Flaming Gorge for some fun and fun
training...it's all fun.
During a surface swim from around Osprey Island we were talking as a group about number of dives and other related topics. Justin mentioned he had now 49 dives and the dive we just completed in a dry suit was his fifth specialty. That number always peaks my interest since it's just one dive away from one of the requirements for the PADI Master Scuba Diver rating. After some thought...ok about 5 seconds worth, Janine and Justin decided that it was a what ever it takes moment. After checking pressure levels in their tanks and making a plan, they dropped along the walls of the 'Gorge' and headed towards the exit point. Crusing along at 30-40 feet for 30 minutes they enjoyed the company of Bass and a great wall dive Utah style.
Justin Park you are it, a what ever it takes diver.
Congratulations on achieving the Master Scuba Diver rating.
A couple months ago we ventured to Flaming Gorge for some fun and fun
training...it's all fun.
During a surface swim from around Osprey Island we were talking as a group about number of dives and other related topics. Justin mentioned he had now 49 dives and the dive we just completed in a dry suit was his fifth specialty. That number always peaks my interest since it's just one dive away from one of the requirements for the PADI Master Scuba Diver rating. After some thought...ok about 5 seconds worth, Janine and Justin decided that it was a what ever it takes moment. After checking pressure levels in their tanks and making a plan, they dropped along the walls of the 'Gorge' and headed towards the exit point. Crusing along at 30-40 feet for 30 minutes they enjoyed the company of Bass and a great wall dive Utah style.
Justin Park you are it, a what ever it takes diver.
Congratulations on achieving the Master Scuba Diver rating.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning
This outstanding article was shared elsewhere and I am in no way the author.
I know that this isn't technically directly related to basic scuba discussions, I'm posting it here so that it gets more exposure.
If you follow the link, there is an excellent discussion following the article:
http://ht.ly/28PJ2
Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning
by Mario on May 18, 2010 in Boating Safety, Coast Guard, gCaptain
The new captain jumped from the cockpit, fully dressed, and sprinted through the water. A former lifeguard, he kept his eyes on his victim as he headed straight for the owners who were swimming between their anchored sportfisher and the beach. “I think he thinks you’re drowning,” the husband said to his wife. They had been splashing each other and she had screamed but now they were just standing, neck-deep on the sand bar. “We’re fine, what is he doing?” she asked, a little annoyed. “We’re fine!” the husband yelled, waving him off, but his captain kept swimming hard. ”Move!” he barked as he sprinted between the stunned owners. Directly behind them, not ten feet away, their nine-year-old daughter was drowning. Safely above the surface in the arms of the captain, she burst into tears, “Daddy!”
How did this captain know, from fifty feet away, what the father couldn’t recognize from just ten? Drowning is not the violent, splashing, call for help that most people expect. The captain was trained to recognize drowning by experts and years of experience. The father, on the other hand, had learned what drowning looks like by watching television. If you spend time on or near the water (hint: that’s all of us) then you should make sure that you and your crew knows what to look for whenever people enter the water. Until she cried a tearful, “Daddy,” she hadn’t made a sound. As a former Coast Guard rescue swimmer, I wasn’t surprised at all by this story. Drowning is almost always a deceptively quiet event. The waving, splashing, and yelling that dramatic conditioning (television) prepares us to look for, is rarely seen in real life.
The Instinctive Drowning Response – so named by Francesco A. Pia, Ph.D., is what people do to avoid actual or perceived suffocation in the water. And it does not look like most people expect. There is very little splashing, no waving, and no yelling or calls for help of any kind. To get an idea of just how quiet and undramatic from the surface drowning can be, consider this: It is the number two cause of accidental death in children, age 15 and under (just behind vehicle accidents) – of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult. In ten percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch them do it, having no idea it is happening (source: CDC). Drowning does not look like drowning – Dr. Pia, in an article in the Coast Guard’s On Scene Magazine, described the instinctive drowning response like this:
1. Except in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. The respiratory system was designed for breathing. Speech is the secondary or overlaid function. Breathing must be fulfilled, before speech occurs.
2. Drowning people’s mouths alternately sink below and reappear above the surface of the water. The mouths of drowning people are not above the surface of the water long enough for them to exhale, inhale, and call out for help. When the drowning people’s mouths are above the surface, they exhale and inhale quickly as their mouths start to sink below the surface of the water.
3. Drowning people cannot wave for help. Nature instinctively forces them to extend their arms laterally and press down on the water’s surface. Pressing down on the surface of the water, permits drowning people to leverage their bodies so they can lift their mouths out of the water to breathe.
4. Throughout the Instinctive Drowning Response, drowning people cannot voluntarily control their arm movements. Physiologically, drowning people who are struggling on the surface of the water cannot stop drowning and perform voluntary movements such as waving for help, moving toward a rescuer, or reaching out for a piece of rescue equipment.
5. From beginning to end of the Instinctive Drowning Response people’s bodies remain upright in the water, with no evidence of a supporting kick. Unless rescued by a trained lifeguard, these drowning people can only struggle on the surface of the water from 20 to 60 seconds before submersion occurs.
(Source: On Scene Magazine: Fall 2006)
This doesn’t mean that a person that is yelling for help and thrashing isn’t in real trouble – they are experiencing aquatic distress. Not always present before the instinctive drowning response, aquatic distress doesn’t last long – but unlike true drowning, these victims can still assist in their own rescue. They can grab lifelines, throw rings, etc.
Look for these other signs of drowning when persons are n the water:
Head low in the water, mouth at water level
Head tilted back with mouth open
Eyes glassy and empty, unable to focus
Eyes closed
Hair over forehead or eyes
Not using legs – Vertical
Hyperventilating or gasping
Trying to swim in a particular direction but not making headway
Trying to roll over on the back
Ladder climb, rarely out of the water.
So if a crew member falls overboard and every looks O.K. – don’t be too sure. Sometimes the most common indication that someone is drowning is that they don’t look like they’re drowning. They may just look like they are treading water and looking up at the deck. One way to be sure? Ask them: “Are you alright?” If they can answer at all – they probably are. If they return a blank stare – you may have less than 30 seconds to get to them. And parents: children playing in the water make noise. When they get quiet, you get to them and find out why.
Dive Safe
I know that this isn't technically directly related to basic scuba discussions, I'm posting it here so that it gets more exposure.
If you follow the link, there is an excellent discussion following the article:
http://ht.ly/28PJ2
Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning
by Mario on May 18, 2010 in Boating Safety, Coast Guard, gCaptain
The new captain jumped from the cockpit, fully dressed, and sprinted through the water. A former lifeguard, he kept his eyes on his victim as he headed straight for the owners who were swimming between their anchored sportfisher and the beach. “I think he thinks you’re drowning,” the husband said to his wife. They had been splashing each other and she had screamed but now they were just standing, neck-deep on the sand bar. “We’re fine, what is he doing?” she asked, a little annoyed. “We’re fine!” the husband yelled, waving him off, but his captain kept swimming hard. ”Move!” he barked as he sprinted between the stunned owners. Directly behind them, not ten feet away, their nine-year-old daughter was drowning. Safely above the surface in the arms of the captain, she burst into tears, “Daddy!”
How did this captain know, from fifty feet away, what the father couldn’t recognize from just ten? Drowning is not the violent, splashing, call for help that most people expect. The captain was trained to recognize drowning by experts and years of experience. The father, on the other hand, had learned what drowning looks like by watching television. If you spend time on or near the water (hint: that’s all of us) then you should make sure that you and your crew knows what to look for whenever people enter the water. Until she cried a tearful, “Daddy,” she hadn’t made a sound. As a former Coast Guard rescue swimmer, I wasn’t surprised at all by this story. Drowning is almost always a deceptively quiet event. The waving, splashing, and yelling that dramatic conditioning (television) prepares us to look for, is rarely seen in real life.
The Instinctive Drowning Response – so named by Francesco A. Pia, Ph.D., is what people do to avoid actual or perceived suffocation in the water. And it does not look like most people expect. There is very little splashing, no waving, and no yelling or calls for help of any kind. To get an idea of just how quiet and undramatic from the surface drowning can be, consider this: It is the number two cause of accidental death in children, age 15 and under (just behind vehicle accidents) – of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult. In ten percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch them do it, having no idea it is happening (source: CDC). Drowning does not look like drowning – Dr. Pia, in an article in the Coast Guard’s On Scene Magazine, described the instinctive drowning response like this:
1. Except in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. The respiratory system was designed for breathing. Speech is the secondary or overlaid function. Breathing must be fulfilled, before speech occurs.
2. Drowning people’s mouths alternately sink below and reappear above the surface of the water. The mouths of drowning people are not above the surface of the water long enough for them to exhale, inhale, and call out for help. When the drowning people’s mouths are above the surface, they exhale and inhale quickly as their mouths start to sink below the surface of the water.
3. Drowning people cannot wave for help. Nature instinctively forces them to extend their arms laterally and press down on the water’s surface. Pressing down on the surface of the water, permits drowning people to leverage their bodies so they can lift their mouths out of the water to breathe.
4. Throughout the Instinctive Drowning Response, drowning people cannot voluntarily control their arm movements. Physiologically, drowning people who are struggling on the surface of the water cannot stop drowning and perform voluntary movements such as waving for help, moving toward a rescuer, or reaching out for a piece of rescue equipment.
5. From beginning to end of the Instinctive Drowning Response people’s bodies remain upright in the water, with no evidence of a supporting kick. Unless rescued by a trained lifeguard, these drowning people can only struggle on the surface of the water from 20 to 60 seconds before submersion occurs.
(Source: On Scene Magazine: Fall 2006)
This doesn’t mean that a person that is yelling for help and thrashing isn’t in real trouble – they are experiencing aquatic distress. Not always present before the instinctive drowning response, aquatic distress doesn’t last long – but unlike true drowning, these victims can still assist in their own rescue. They can grab lifelines, throw rings, etc.
Look for these other signs of drowning when persons are n the water:
Head low in the water, mouth at water level
Head tilted back with mouth open
Eyes glassy and empty, unable to focus
Eyes closed
Hair over forehead or eyes
Not using legs – Vertical
Hyperventilating or gasping
Trying to swim in a particular direction but not making headway
Trying to roll over on the back
Ladder climb, rarely out of the water.
So if a crew member falls overboard and every looks O.K. – don’t be too sure. Sometimes the most common indication that someone is drowning is that they don’t look like they’re drowning. They may just look like they are treading water and looking up at the deck. One way to be sure? Ask them: “Are you alright?” If they can answer at all – they probably are. If they return a blank stare – you may have less than 30 seconds to get to them. And parents: children playing in the water make noise. When they get quiet, you get to them and find out why.
Dive Safe
When Things Go Wrong. Understanding The Panic Cycle
The panic cycle is a simple process and quite easy to understand.
A problem causes stress. If that stress leads to anxiety, a couple of things take place. The diver's heart rate increases. The diver's breathing rate increases. This rapid breathing is usually shallow breathing. Rapid, shallow breathing results in a decreased gas exchange in the lungs. This causes the carbon dioxide level in the diver's lungs to increase. As we all know, an increased carbon dioxide level in the lungs triggers the need to breathe. Breathing becomes faster and shallower in a snowball effect. Now in addition to the original problem the diver is feeling he can't get enough air. The diver focuses on the original problem and the problem of not getting enough air. That focus is not on what can I do to solve these problems, but on what the result might be. "I'm underwater and I can't breathe. I have to get to the surface now!" Panic is mere seconds away.
What causes this cycle to start?
A problem that leads to anxiety. In diving, things go wrong from time to time. If you have a leaky mask, that's a problem. Is it a big problem or a little problem? If you clear your mask with ease, it's a little problem. It's such a small problem, you may not even recognize it as a problem. If you have difficulty with this skill, it could be a big problem. The more skills we possess and the more confidence we have in our skills, the more likely any given problem will be a small one. A class that includes confidence building goes a long way toward preventing the panic cycle from ever starting.
On the other hand, no one is perfect. No one is immune to anxiety and fear. When a diver feels anxiety, he needs to recognize it and concentrate on slow, deep breathing. Taking slow deep breaths stops the feeling of being air starved. The diver then needs to think, not about the problem, but about solutions to the problem. Look at the big picture and solve the problem. In Dennis Graver's book Scuba Diving, he says something I think is very important, "Take control of your thoughts before they take control of you." Concentrating on the problem and possible consequences can be deadly. Divers need to concentrate on the solution to the problem.
This article is courtesy of "Walter"
A problem causes stress. If that stress leads to anxiety, a couple of things take place. The diver's heart rate increases. The diver's breathing rate increases. This rapid breathing is usually shallow breathing. Rapid, shallow breathing results in a decreased gas exchange in the lungs. This causes the carbon dioxide level in the diver's lungs to increase. As we all know, an increased carbon dioxide level in the lungs triggers the need to breathe. Breathing becomes faster and shallower in a snowball effect. Now in addition to the original problem the diver is feeling he can't get enough air. The diver focuses on the original problem and the problem of not getting enough air. That focus is not on what can I do to solve these problems, but on what the result might be. "I'm underwater and I can't breathe. I have to get to the surface now!" Panic is mere seconds away.
What causes this cycle to start?
A problem that leads to anxiety. In diving, things go wrong from time to time. If you have a leaky mask, that's a problem. Is it a big problem or a little problem? If you clear your mask with ease, it's a little problem. It's such a small problem, you may not even recognize it as a problem. If you have difficulty with this skill, it could be a big problem. The more skills we possess and the more confidence we have in our skills, the more likely any given problem will be a small one. A class that includes confidence building goes a long way toward preventing the panic cycle from ever starting.
On the other hand, no one is perfect. No one is immune to anxiety and fear. When a diver feels anxiety, he needs to recognize it and concentrate on slow, deep breathing. Taking slow deep breaths stops the feeling of being air starved. The diver then needs to think, not about the problem, but about solutions to the problem. Look at the big picture and solve the problem. In Dennis Graver's book Scuba Diving, he says something I think is very important, "Take control of your thoughts before they take control of you." Concentrating on the problem and possible consequences can be deadly. Divers need to concentrate on the solution to the problem.
This article is courtesy of "Walter"
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Scott and Judy Will Be In First Class
Last year during a trip to Mexico we are waiting to board the plane. All of a sudden they call a couple from our group to the ticket counter. Think happy thoughts. Well it seems there was an over booking and they were choosen to fly in first class. Well it was only fitting. You see it was Scott and Judy's honeymoon and why not.
Fast forward. Today is another 'first class' moment. After recently logging their 50th dive at the Homestead Crater, yeah we wish it was in the tropics also, they have now reached the Master Scuba Diver rating. So when you see this happy couple walking around, give them a congratulations and ask what they plan to do for their 100th dive.
Fast forward. Today is another 'first class' moment. After recently logging their 50th dive at the Homestead Crater, yeah we wish it was in the tropics also, they have now reached the Master Scuba Diver rating. So when you see this happy couple walking around, give them a congratulations and ask what they plan to do for their 100th dive.
Congratulations Scott and Judy Steele. Always first class.
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